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Thanks to everyone for all the responses. This is going to be harder than I thought. I'm going to parse some of that dry run ride for context.
1) Long stretches of the ride to work are along "multi-use paths" built for cyclists and pedestrians, including two miles of the Eastern Trail and the Barrier Lane on the Bay Bridge. They're a welcome respite from traffic.
2) Regarding the on-the-sidewalk, off-the-sidewalk thing, Portland has gone to a lot of effort to advertise themselves as a pedestrian-friendly city, which means that for a cyclist, it's impossible to tell whether you'd be safer in the travel lane or on the sidewalk. It is literally a moment-by-moment assessment. The sidewalks are huge and cycling is allowed, but then you see what looks like the entire cast of "Friends" walking towards you abreast, all of them seeing you very clearly yet not one of them deviating their pace in the slightest, and you're going back into that travel lane - whereupon a parked car opens its drivers' side door at you. (Fortunately there was no one in the travel lane.)
3) The "On your left/on your right" thing only works if other people are listening. I was crossing the Bay Bridge and this guy was ambling along without a care in the world, and without a warning my bike was going to be invading his personal space. However, despite saying "On your right," a couple of times, he just continued ambling, until I was trailing along behind him at about 2 MPH. "Hey!"
I heard the buzzing of another cyclist behind me, and heard, "On your right," no louder than I'd said it. For some reason, the guy not only noticed that one, it seemed to startle the hell out of him. He jumped as if stung and flung himself against the suicide fence, staring at me as if he'd seen a ghost while the other cyclist cruised past.
This cycling thing is going to take a certain degree of cooperation. I can't ever remember a time when, as a pedestrian, I stood my ground and glared defiantly at an approaching cyclist as if to say "No, YOU move," but if you're under thirty and live in Portland, this is clearly the hot new game to play.
Downtown looks like the only place where there's any question about where to put the bike. Broadway is usually pretty traffic heavy, but they have breakdown space and hardly-used sidewalks, and everything else is bike path. I think I apologized to more people on that one-mile stretch of Congress than anywhere else.
1) Long stretches of the ride to work are along "multi-use paths" built for cyclists and pedestrians, including two miles of the Eastern Trail and the Barrier Lane on the Bay Bridge. They're a welcome respite from traffic.
2) Regarding the on-the-sidewalk, off-the-sidewalk thing, Portland has gone to a lot of effort to advertise themselves as a pedestrian-friendly city, which means that for a cyclist, it's impossible to tell whether you'd be safer in the travel lane or on the sidewalk. It is literally a moment-by-moment assessment. The sidewalks are huge and cycling is allowed, but then you see what looks like the entire cast of "Friends" walking towards you abreast, all of them seeing you very clearly yet not one of them deviating their pace in the slightest, and you're going back into that travel lane - whereupon a parked car opens its drivers' side door at you. (Fortunately there was no one in the travel lane.)
3) The "On your left/on your right" thing only works if other people are listening. I was crossing the Bay Bridge and this guy was ambling along without a care in the world, and without a warning my bike was going to be invading his personal space. However, despite saying "On your right," a couple of times, he just continued ambling, until I was trailing along behind him at about 2 MPH. "Hey!"
I heard the buzzing of another cyclist behind me, and heard, "On your right," no louder than I'd said it. For some reason, the guy not only noticed that one, it seemed to startle the hell out of him. He jumped as if stung and flung himself against the suicide fence, staring at me as if he'd seen a ghost while the other cyclist cruised past.
This cycling thing is going to take a certain degree of cooperation. I can't ever remember a time when, as a pedestrian, I stood my ground and glared defiantly at an approaching cyclist as if to say "No, YOU move," but if you're under thirty and live in Portland, this is clearly the hot new game to play.
Downtown looks like the only place where there's any question about where to put the bike. Broadway is usually pretty traffic heavy, but they have breakdown space and hardly-used sidewalks, and everything else is bike path. I think I apologized to more people on that one-mile stretch of Congress than anywhere else.
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